Preservation of Civil War battlefield still possible in York

Carson Hudson stops and looks over the land near where the 1862 Battle of… (Jonathon Gruenke, Daily…)

September 12, 2013|By Amanda Kerr, akerr@dailypress.com

YORK — Despite concerns from local historic preservationists about the fate of a Civil War battle site in upper York County where the Board of Supervisors recently opted to keep a mixed-use designation, the Navy and other key players remain interested in striking a deal to avoid development.

Williamsburg Battlefield Trust members Drew Gruber and Tom McMahon worry that keeping the land designated for mixed-use could hinder conversations about preserving the land as a historic site and instead pave the way for extensive mixed-use development, which includes commercial and residential construction.

Last week the Board of Supervisors opted to keep a mixed-use designation on 250 acres bounded by Interstate 64 and Colonial Parkway and expand it to a total of 985 acres that reaches past the I-64 interchange with Route 199 to the Marquis shopping center. The changes were part of an updated version of the county's Comprehensive Plan. Any mixed-use development there would have to be approved by the Board of Supervisors.

Nearly 400 acres of the land designated for mixed use has been at the center of a debate between the property owners who wanted the designation, the Navy — which opposed it because of encroachment on Naval Weapons Station Yorktown — and historic preservationists who want the land to remain undisturbed because of its ties to the Civil War.

The Navy received permission from the Department of Defense to utilize funding from the Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) program with the goal of partnering with the Civil War Trust, which preserves battlefields, to purchase the land.

But there is also strong interest in developing some of the property. A purchase contract is already in play between local developer Mid-Atlantic Commercial and Anheuser-Busch, which owns about 141 acres of the land at issue. Gruber and McMahon worry that development of the Busch property will ultimately lead to development of the remaining 250 acres owned by the Egger family.

Gruber takes issue with Supervisor Chairman Walt Zaremba's rationale for expanding mixed use as a way to "put some pressure" on the parties. Instead he feels like it could hurt momentum.

"If the Navy, Civil War Trust and Williamsburg Battlefield Trust didn't have a plan they wouldn't have appealed to the supervisors," he said. "They came asking for (the removal of mixed use) as a tool to help facilitate conversations between them and the property owners."

Local historian John Quarstein, who gave a presentation on the history of the property to the supervisors last week, doesn't think the mixed-use designation will kill a deal to preserve the land.

"I think everyone recognizes no matter how the property is zoned it should be preserved," said Quarstein, who has previously worked with the Civil War Trust to preserve other local battlefields. "We just need to find a way to get everyone at the table."

Matt Egger, whose family owns the 250-acre parcel, indicated in an Aug. 29 letter to the supervisors that he was prepared to negotiate with the Navy and preservationists but asked that an existing mixed-use designation not be removed because it would devalue the property. He requested the board not take any action "that could favor or prejudice either side prior to the REPI negotiations."

The supervisors' decision hasn't hampered the Navy's interest. Capt. Lowell Crow, commanding officer of Naval Weapons Station Yorktown, said in an email Thursday that the supervisors' decision regarding mixed use doesn't affect the Navy potentially using REPI funds to purchase the land. Jim Campi, a spokesman for the Civil War Trust, said the group was "disappointed" but that the decision will not "deter" its efforts to acquire the land.

Efforts by York County to facilitate a meeting between the interested parties has been unsuccessful. A county spokeswoman said Thursday that no meeting has been scheduled.